Baseball
managers are expected to speak in platitudes instead of trafficking in truth;
but I drafted the 11 boys who'll be wearing Athletics green and gold through
the first week of June.I drafted the
tall, lanky and bespectacled lad who earnestly tried to stop a groundball with
his foot, instead of his glove, at a recent practice.I drafted the short, surly and bespectacled
child who does not speak.It's the
damndest thing, but I assume it's a tribute to "Calvin" from one of
the most criminally underrated movies in cinematic history.I drafted the hustling, bust-his-butt,
bespectacled kid who'd never played baseball before this...hey, wait.

I DRAFTED
THREE KIDS WHO WEAR GLASSES.Oh, don't
look at me like that.I wore glasses for
years before Lasik surgery.It's just
that in 2014, ballplayers who wear glasses are exceedingly rare and only ironically feted.30 years ago, they were some of the coolest baseball cards in the
pack.Isn't that right, Mike, Reggie and Mike?

Our practices throughout the month of February were -- to
put it politely -- "unpolished".I'd been spoiled by the team I managed last year.We weren't the most talented squad, but most
of the kids' collective baseball acumen belied their ages, so the
less-experienced players had on-field examples to follow.We finished the regular season just 8-7-1,
but hit our stride in the playoffs before losing in the championship game.That team was led by an 11-year-old named
Jordan.

Jordan -- who bore more than a passing resemblance to a
certain child actor -- batted third or fourth for me all season.He pitched nearly 30% of our team's total
innings played -- even after missing a week with a strained bicep that may OR
MAY NOT have been caused by overusage.*

After our first practice, I took him aside and asked him
to take on a leadership role.He was the
oldest player on the team and accepted my offer with a respectful "Yes,
coach."Much to my surprise, he
took his unofficial captaincy seriously -- mentoring the less-experienced
players and reigning in the raucous dugout when the 9 and 10-year-olds in it were
acting like 9 and 10-year-olds.

* -- In a transparent attempt to distract
you from my ALLEGED abuse of an underage arm, here's an unrelated link that bares NO similarity to the
situation described above. None.

My son Jalen turned 10 in February.And, whether I like it or not, I'm losing my
"little boy".He decided to grow
his hair out last summer, much to the consternation of his father who was
raised in a Marine Corps household.His
taste in music is wildly eclectic -- like my wife's -- circuitously meandering
from Motown to obnoxious pop to rap
acts that have passed me by.**Earlier this week, after arriving at school, Jalen leaned forward from
the backseat and told me, "OK, dad, let's get this over with: I love you.
Now, hug me."Last year, he
established no less than 10 feet of distance must separate us when I'm
walking him to class.

** -- If I told you that Jalen had the CLEAN
version on his iPod, you'd believe me, right?PLEASE DON'T CALL CPS.

J has spent the months since the end of his last Little
League season playing on a travel ball squad.His game has made real improvements -- both at the plate and on the
mound -- but, the most noticeable change is a newfound toughness that he lacked
in the past.To be clear, Mrs. Bootleg
and I would never dream of pushing our only child beyond his physical or
emotional limits.But, at some point, J
needed to start pushing himself.Mommy
and daddy can't do that for him.

Near as I can tell, the turning point occurred last
October.J's travel ball team was
playing in a tournament down in Chula Vista.As usual, the start of southern California's autumn meant dry desert
winds whistling in from the east and temperatures in the high 80s.J pitched the second game of the day after an
early-morning two-hour tilt.

Since he was six-years-old, Jalen has been susceptible to
migraine headaches.He's been seeing a
specialist for the past several months and while we've seen improvement, warm
weather and physical exertion -- together -- are two of J's biggest
triggers.His symptoms are easy to spot:
glassy eyes, sluggishness, slightly slurred speech.After pitching the top of the first inning, I
could see two of three from the bleachers.I spoke to J briefly between innings and his barely coherent mumbling
confirmed the third.

We notified his coach, but Jalen insisted he could keep
pitching.As I paced nervously from foul
pole to foul pole, J pitched five innings -- giving in to gravity as he
collapsed on the bench between innings and dragging himself back to the mound
with an internal tank that teetered towards empty.And, after figuratively pitching his guts out
for five innings, he did so literally for pretty much the entirety of the
sixth.So, how could I
not make history with this kid?

Little League! 10 y/o son is 1st
African-American pitcher to start opener for #Athletics
since Dave Stewart. (Black history is EVERY month.)— Aaron
C. (@ThatBootlegGuy) March
6, 2014

Wearing gleaming white cleats and an
unsanctioned-by-Little League fitted A's cap with a flat yellow brim
(grumble), Jalen took the mound last Thursday
evening against the White Sox.He
retired the first two batters before his friend Daniel stepped to the
plate.Daniel is one of the bigger and
stronger kids in our division.He walloped
a grand slam home run over the left field wall in All Stars last summer and two
years ago, he hit a bomb off Jalen that ricocheted off the top of the fence.

J fretted all week over how to pitch to Daniel, then
proceeded to hang an 0-1 change-up.Daniel hit a sky-high fly ball to centerfield.I'd stationed a small kid named Nicholas out there.Throughout the entire month of February, he
might've caught two balls that were hit or thrown to
him.So, OF COURSE, he calmly sticks up
his glove and pulls this one down.Nicholas sprinted back to the dugout, beating half the team in and
wearing an ear-to-ear grin.

Me: "Nicholas!GREAT catch!

Nicholas:
"Thanks,coach!Icouldn'tbelieveIcaughtit!Didyousee?!

Me: "Get some water, son."

Jalen singled to lead off the bottom of the first, stole
second and scored on two of those ubiquitous Little League baseball
overthrows.He went back out to the
mound, striking out two in the second inning and three in the third.After three innings, we led 9-0 and
eventually won 14-5.